“We are celebrating our first year of high-resolution downloads from Sweden with a special pre-Christmas promotion. Every day, from December 1 until Christmas Eve, you will find two different 24-bit albums from BIS and PentaTone at a 50% discount that day. If you miss one, don't worry, you will still have the opportunity to download it at a reduced price for two more days, the first day at 25% and the second at 10% discount.”

“It's official, the holidays are here! ArkivMusic has gifts of classical music as well as music for the holiday season ready to ship. Once again this year, we have limited editions and exclusive items you won't find anywhere else.”

“For our first course of this musical feast, we’ve assembled merchants from 17th-century London. The voices of merchants hawking their wares served as the inspiration for a generation of English composers and formed the basis for a genre of works now known as the cries.

Recently Google jumped into the music selling business with Google Music (store). The following is an article comparing the services of the three largest music download services on the Internet. (Editor)

“Google opened its new music store to all comers in the US this week, touting its partnerships with music labels and indie musicians, and its broad reach thanks to the Android Market. The new store has millions of songs for sale, but whether it's a game changer, serious competition for iTunes and Amazon MP3, or the best online music store out there is another question entirely. Let's take a look at each service based on its features.

“Following Ensemble Caprice’s first recording of Vivaldi’s sacred music (Gloria! Vivaldi and his Angels) we return to Vivaldi’s Venice and find ourselves yet again within the confines of the Ospedale della Pietà orphanage where, beginning in 1703, Vivaldi, the Red Priest, not only taught the orphan girls violin and singing, but also composed many of his most dazzling concertos as well as a substantial part of his highly inspired corpus of sacred music.

“Back by popular demand Linn's brilliant value, no-hassle, highest quality Digital Music Collections make a welcome return for a limited time only. And, for the first time, our premium Digital Music Collections are all available in Apple Lossless as well as FLAC.

“Soprano Lucy Crowe joins The English Concert led by Harry Bicket in this dazzling programme of Handel arias and cantatas dating from his sojourn in Italy, where he was affectionately dubbed “the dear Saxon”.

“In Venice, one of the 16th century’s most influential composers died. Adrian Willaert served as organist, choirmaster, and composer at St. Mark’s basilica for thirty-five years, and cultivated a style of writing for cori spezzati, or “separated choirs.” The sonic effects of Willaert’s innovative compositions were emulated by succeeding musicians at St. Mark’s, such as Cipriano de Rore and Andrea Gabrieli.

“The unprecedented expansion of music in the age of enlightenmentThe eighteenth century is probably the most extraordinary period of transformation Europe has known since antiquity. Political upheavals kept pace with the innumerable inventions and discoveries of the age; every sector of the arts and of intellectual and material life was turned upside down. Between the end of the reign of Louis XIV and the revolution of 1789, music in its turn underwent a radical mutation that struck at the very heart of a well-established musical language. In this domain too, we are all children of the Age of Enlightenment: our conception of music and the way we ‘consume' it still follows in many respects the agenda set by the eighteenth century. And it is not entirely by chance that harmonia mundi has chosen to offer you in 2011 a survey of this musical revolution which, without claiming to be exhaustive, will enable you to grasp the principal outlines of musical creation between the twilight of the Baroque and the dawn of Romanticism.“

“Bargain label extraordinaire Brilliant Classics is on sale now at ArkivMusic, with plenty of affordable classical boxed sets that make great gifts! You will find several new collections to choose from, covering the Renaissance to the 20th century, from orchestral music to solo piano to chamber and choral, for collectors and novices alike -- all tremendous values.”

For those interested in the following discount offer:

“Tafelmusik celebrates the release of its 78th recording, BACH: Tafelmusik and Daniel Taylor. Until midnight on November 11th, get 30% off any Tafelmusik title with Analekta with the promo code TAFEL. Make your selection now!“

“BIS is proud to announce the signing of an exclusive recording contract with the male vocal quartet New York Polyphony.

Male classical vocal quartet New York Polyphony, who received international acclaim with the CDs I sing the birth (2007) and Tudor City (2010), has signed an exclusive recording contract with BIS Records.

“After his acclaimed explorations of such Handel operas as Giulio Cesare and Rinaldo, René Jacobs now tackles the first great operatic success of the ‘caro Sassone’ (Venice, 1710), the climax of his Italian period.

“Chandos offers some of its classic recordings in a new format – high-quality pre-loaded memory sticks. Initially, 14 collections have been made available on USB drives from Chandos’ catalogue, each stick based on a themed series or composer, such as the Haydn Complete Mass Editions & London Symphonies, Elgar Oratorios and the Vaughan Williams symphony collection.

(Re-posted as a reminder to our readers who may have missed the Chaconne October discount offer.)

200 Early Music Albums at 25% Off

“This month we are offering over 200 early music albums at 25% off, courtesy of the early music label Chaconne, which is renowned for its broad cross section of early-music repertoire from Medieval to Classical, performed on original or period instruments.

“This programme offers a vivid and varied cross-section of English song, ranging from the Edwardian aesthetic of Quilter and early Vaughan Williams to the intensely expressive style of Howells and Finzi.

After having recorded a first CD dedicated to the “Opella Nova” and to a few pieces from Johann Herman Schein’s Fountains of Israël, Sagittarius will follow with a second CD dedicated to 17 motets from the Fountains of Israël. These motets have till now, never been recorded.